What Makes Uber Run

http://www.fastcompany.com/3050250/what-makes-uber-run/

by doppp • 11 years ago

91 67 11 years ago

[Travis Kalanick] wore a cowboy hat and referred to himself as the Wolf, after the cold-blooded, coolly rational fixer played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction.

It's generally a bad sign when you meet an actual human being who refers to himself as "The Wolf."

amelius• 11 years ago

It may happen when you eat your own dogfood long enough.

bryanrasmussen• 11 years ago

especially when it's a 'cooly rational fixer' who does such smart things as discussing murder over a portable phone, speeding to the site of a crime he needs to help cleanup, and leading the two idiot assassins involved in the crime to his dumping place for bodies and introducing them to the future owner of the site.

dylanjermiah7• 11 years ago

Thankfully he wasn't being literal.

hoodedmongoose• 11 years ago

Hopefully he's not also thinking of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf#Wolf_Larsen

(great book btw)

kdamken• 11 years ago

Yeah that part was particularly cringeworthy.

tomjacobs• 11 years ago

yay they mentioned my name in the article

gozo• 11 years ago

I guess this isn't the intended message, but whenever I read an article like this I'm happy to be nowhere near SV. I can see myself waking up after ten years realizing how I wasted my life on pretending that crude forms of desktop publishing and business intelligence is somehow the bleeding edge of technology.

onion2k• 11 years ago

Startups aren't about "bleeding edge tech" though. Startups take ideas and technology and build innovative products that solve real problems. What those products are built on can be anything - it doesn't matter whether the tech was invented 5 minutes ago or 5 decades ago, if it solves the problem better than any current solution then that's a good thing, and that's what the startup should use.

I would much rather work on something with desktop publishing and business intelligence for 10 years and look back knowing I helped people solve an actual problem they had than look back knowing I worked on the shiniest new toy before anyone else.

marincounty• 11 years ago

And then there's tech like getting rid of all the toll takers on the GG bridge. I honestly haven't crossed to bridge since the complete conversion. Partly, because I never found San Franciso that romantic, don't work in the city anymore, and part, because I don't want to wait for a bill in the mail.

Hay--GG bridge district members. I have a feeling you are missing out of a lot of toll form casual bridge users? Some of us would pay your tolls with our spare physical currency, and spend the day in that city--buying stuff?

yes--it's off topic, and I don't think a traditional startup had anything to do with the the elimination of toll takers.

I just hope technology solves real problems, and isn't used to make the rich richer, or only provides good tech jobs in good unusual economic boom times? I know right now I could live without 75% of this new technology. Kind of a weird confession--huh? And no--I'm not a Luddite? Well, I hope I'm not? I know, I do miss hanging out in Book stores? Starbucks doesn't cut it? And, I haven't been to a movie theater in years? And I honestly don't like meeting people over the Internet? I do like the immediacy of this tool though?

chadillac2• 11 years ago

What, you don't have all night jam sessions at your 3 bedroom house in San Fran? Just picking yourself up by your bootstraps, struggling to make it, in your 3 bedroom house in San Fran. You know, down in the much and the mire, busting out LoC tirelessly while worrying about how you're gonna keep the lights on, in your 3 bedroom house in San Fran...

This reminds me when I asked a person who is now a "worlds youngest self made billionaire" club member how they possibly built paid their bills while in the early phases of their startup, that time when you're too small to even consider funding, but big enough to warrant a couple hires to help lay a foundation. The reply, "Ha! [founder's name]'s family is loaded...".

That's when I realized I had worked on the underlying skills, I had ideas, but I missed the most important part... money and/or rich friends.

elcct• 11 years ago

That means first you have to get rich and then work on the skills

puranjay3• 11 years ago

This is true for many entrepreneurs. Evan Spiegel's dad is a rich lawyer, as is Mark Zuckerberg's and Bill Gates'

Travis doesn't fall in this category though. He got his 3 bedroom house with his own money

sabalaba• 11 years ago

There are plenty of reasonably priced apartments outside of SF and Palo Alto. It means you might need to live in the east bay or somewhere less expensive south of the city but it's possible and maybe necessary in the early days.

sinzone2• 11 years ago

Travis bought his house after selling RedSwoosh and being for 4 years without salary. He deserves every penny of it.

Shadow6363• 11 years ago

Earnest question then: what do you see as the bleeding edge of technology? Where is that happening? What companies are doing it?

sas1ni69• 11 years ago

Missed an opportunity for a good pun. "What drives Uber."

vicbrooker• 11 years ago

And did so in favour of a forced one - I think the title is meant to reference the whole track runner thing.

sinzone2• 11 years ago

I was part of the jampad era and slept there several nights and even tho the article mentioned good facts I think I will have to write some more interesting ones on a blog post. He also helped our startup many times and we closed our angel round at his house.

Travis deserves all the success.

andor• 11 years ago

...venture capital?

tonyjstark• 11 years ago

and ignoring local laws?

puranjay3• 11 years ago

When local laws are outdated and don't serve the interests of the population, do they really deserve to be followed?

People have voted with their wallets - they'd rather take an Uber than an outdated taxi with bad customer service.

inversionOf3• 11 years ago

This is an aspect of several of these startups that amazes me: So many times I've had discussions with peers about possible business ideas, and we get mired in the realities of legislation and compliance (it's very easy to get caught up in the nuances of every customer agreement, disclosure form, etc, to ensure the most edge of conditions don't end up in a business-destroying lawsuit), the vision abandoned because of those risks and legal complexities.

Companies like Uber and AirBnB (and countless others) simply pretend that those complexities don't exist -- the market to be disrupted only because they're willing to completely circumvent laws and standards -- and money starts falling on their heads.

mariusmg• 11 years ago

What a useless, devoid of content, self wanking article. I guess the Uber CEO write at least half of it.

SandB0x2• 11 years ago

Although Kalanick had been a startup guy since high school, he was a grinder, not a mogul. He had made enough on his last one, RedSwoosh, to buy a house and do a bit of angel investing.

Oh no big deal, only enough to have complete financial security at the age of 30.

chinathrow• 11 years ago

Did you read the article? He nearly didn't manage to grow RedSwoosh and then sell it.

No defense for him or Uber - I'm not a customer and have no plans to be one.

SandB0x2• 11 years ago

I did read the article. I find it incredible how it pays absolutely no attention to the fact that he became a millionaire through RedSwoosh and how this allowed him to invest in your startup and "show up at your office one or two days a week" if he felt like it.

My issue isn't with him specifically, more the sense of entitlement of the industry and the press.

Kalanick came away from the experience with a profound sense of relief and also a bit of a problem with authority

...and a huge amount of money. For most people in the developed world, buying a home and having enough money left over to even think about angel investing (or other expensive pastimes) at a young age is an absolute dream.

Many people see personal wealth as a pre-requisite for being able to found a startup. A little more focus on this side of a founder's story would be welcome.

steffandroid• 11 years ago

Uber—the first company since Google with a service so popular that its name is in regular use as both a noun and a verb

Skype?

amorphid• 11 years ago

Google?

netcan• 11 years ago

I think "tweet" should count. People say "Facebook me" too. I hear both more regularly than "uber," in fact I can't remember a anyone using it as a verb but that's just because an uber is something you get rather than do. I don't taxi over to your house either.

icebraining4• 11 years ago

I don't taxi over to your house either.

Well, not unless their house is at the end of a runway :)

aianus2• 11 years ago

I've heard 'taxiing over' many times as well as 'ubering'.

larrydag• 11 years ago

Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime, Tinder, WhatsApp

jacalata• 11 years ago

Facebook? Come on, people!

arbuge2• 11 years ago

Never heard Uber in use as a verb before. Skype, a few times.

theworstshill• 11 years ago

The article implies that its the people, and thats partway true. For customers - its mostly a review system. Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger.

toomuchtodo• 11 years ago

Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger.

If that's all their moat is, they don't have much of a moat.

What Makes Uber Run

Related Stories